1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lasers. More specifically, the present invention relates to high-energy or high average power lasers.
2. Description of the Related Art
High-power lasers (i.e. lasers operating at power levels in excess of 100 watts) are used in a variety of commercial, industrial and military applications. For these applications, there is an ongoing need for more power and more efficiency. In addition, beam quality is typically limited in high-power lasers due to thermal distortion of optical elements, primarily by heat loading of the gain medium. This problem is exacerbated at high power levels. While some have approached this problem with larger aperture sizes, with this approach the beam quality and efficiency are typically affected adversely.
Another approach involves restricting the beam size in order to improve the beam quality. However, this generally limits the power of the resulting beam. That is, with an improved output aperture area fill, higher power is not possible without damaging the associated optical system. Consequently, designers of high power lasers have been forced to compromise between beam size or power and beam quality and vice versa.
Hence, there is an ongoing need in the art for a system or method for improving the power and efficiency of high-power, particularly solid-state, lasers. Specifically, there is a need for a system for improving the output aperture area fill of high-power, solid-state lasers.